Pubdate: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 Source: Standard, The (St. Catharines, CN ON) 982&catname=Editorial Copyright: 2003, The Standard Contact: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/676 TOUGHER TERMS FOR TRAPS IS WELCOME LEGISLATION A new bill introduced last Friday in the House of Commons seeks to toughen the penalties for drug dealers who set deadly traps in their labs or grow operations. It would increase the term to 14 years if someone is injured by a trap, and calls for a life sentence if anybody is killed by one. That's a welcome development and one that has been a long time in coming. The change in the legislation seeks to discourage the sort of life-threatening obstacles set up by criminals who want to discourage other crooks from stealing their drugs. What sometimes happens, however, is that firefighters, police officers or ambulance workers called to the scene find themselves in great danger. Marijuana grow operations are dangerous enough. They present dangers to firefighters who respond when a grow-op building catches fire. The blazes are most often caused by the large number of electric lamps used to create a 24-hour growth environment for the plants. In order to avoid creating large hydro bills, criminals get their electricity by illegally tapping power lines. When the unsafe electrical set-up overheats or causes a fire in what is usually an empty building, firefighters show up on the scene. Before they enter the building with their water hoses, the regular power supply to the house is shut off. But illegal hydro lines still bring unregulated electrical power into the building -- which can be deadly. It's not yet clear whether the new bill would cover this danger, since the illegal hydro lines are not being used as a deterrent or trap. But it might discourage grow operators from some of their other dangerous set-ups. Firefighters have been complaining for the past few years of grow ops or drug labs with false floors that give way beneath them, explosives and even trip-wired firearms used to discourage unwelcome intruders. A grow operation found recently in New Brunswick was set with 30 spring-loaded animal traps. In Nova Scotia, a boy who wandered into a field of marijuana was shot in the leg after he tripped a wire connected to a shotgun. According to Jim Lee, a Toronto spokesman for the International Association of Firefighters, Canadian firefighters responding to fires in grow ops have been injured by traps. Although so far no one has been killed, at one site they were confronted by a loaded cross bow wired to shoot anyone who came through the front door. This sort of thing is reprehensible, and we're glad to see Ottawa is finally clamping down. Our emergency workers have enough challenges to deal with on the job. They shouldn't have to worry about booby traps as well. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth